It is a glorious, shining moment for the National Space Program: launch day is finally here. The crew is suited up and looking dashing, journalists are lined up for miles, and the sky is clear and inviting. There's just one problem: due to a bureaucratic mishap, the rockets aren't scheduled to be assembled until next Tuesday.
You and the other players are high-ranking scientists at the National Space Program, competing to put together the best rocket you possibly can in the final ten minutes before launch. Whoever builds the rocket that gets closest to space, without exploding or suffering a similar fatal catastrophe, wins the game and keeps their job. If every rocket is destroyed, the winner is whoever got the closest.
Don't Explode takes place over two phases, Construction and Launch. During Construction, players will draft cards from the construction deck and add components to their control module, in order to build the best rocket they possibly can in the limited time available. During Launch, players will see how well they did, by using the components which make up their rocket to advance their pawn from the Earth to space (or as close to space as they can get).